Monroe rockers in conspiracy for wider audience

During the past five years, Cold Conspiracy has shared the stage with Boston, Finger Eleven, Saliva, Framing Hanley, My Darkest Days, Taproot, Pop Evil, Flaw, Primer 55, Adelitas Way and Sevendust. For the Monroe-based rockers, getting good shows has not been much of a problem. Getting exposure has.

“We’re trying to get that started right now, but it’s so hard,” Cold Conspiracy frontman Jeff Prewitt said. “That’s what’s cool about Toledo. We like going down there playing and it’s easy for our fans to make it down that way. But when you try to book out of your range it’s really hard to get into places because they always want you to have a draw, and it’s like impossible to have a draw when you haven’t played in that area yet because all you really have is the Internet to show people.”

A five-piece outfit comprised of Prewitt (vocals), Brian Balk (guitar), Adam Champagne (guitar), Lonnie Stump (bass) and Sean Belcher (drums), Cold Conspiracy will perform at the Omni on July 23 as an opening act for Shadows In Red’s CD release party. Cold Conspiracy wants to expand its music beyond the Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan areas, and part of that effort has been through the Internet.

One of those online avenues for Cold Conspiracy is a battle of the bands competition to play on the Best Buy Music Gear Stage on Sept. 9 at DTE Energy Music Theatre in Clarkston as part of the Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Festival. Highlights for the grand prize winner include a slot to play on every tour stop of next year’s Uproar Festival, an EP produced by Jay Baumgardner at NRG Studios in Hollywood and $10,000 in gear through Best Buy Musical Instruments.

“It’d be a big accomplishment, and it’d be another stepping stone for us,” Balk said. “It’s just hard for us, being a few of the guys in the band have families, so they know they have to put food on the table for the kids. So it’s hard for us just to get up and go like a lot of these other bands do that are established.

“We’re not established yet, so we just have to dig in when we can and hope we get our break. Plus, winning something online that our fans can help put us through on would be amazing.”

Cold Conspiracy recorded its self-titled, debut album in the home studio of Champagne’s stepfather Jerry Gysin; it was released on March 10, 2010 and is available for mp3 download on Amazon.com. The band also has a three-song demo — only available through Cold Conspiracy — featuring new tracks “Leave You,” “Break Free” and “Never Let You Go,” which were recorded with Ben Schigel of Spider Studios. The band wants to record its next album with Schigel, who has worked with Drowning Pool, Chimaira and Walls of Jericho, among others.

While Cold Conspiracy has struggled — like many bands trying to make it as full-time musicians — Prewitt said the group has a strong foundation in Toledo to build on.

“People — if they don’t like you — they’re not going to go out of their way to tell you, ‘Good job,’” Prewitt said. “It’s like, yeah, some people do kind of do that, but we have got such great responses from people down [in Toledo]. It’s kind of unbelievable.

“Of course, you always get your crappy shows now and then where you get booked somewhere and there’s five people standing in front of you, but for the most part any time we play in Toledo we always get a really good crowd reaction, and we just need to start spreading it other places, start spreading it further into Ohio, too.”

Cold Conspiracy and The Unknown will open for Shadows In Red at the Omni, located at 2567 Bancroft St.. Doors open at 8 p.m. and tickets are $5 in advance. For more information, call (419) 535-6664. To check out Cold Conspiracy, visit myspace.com/coldconspiracy or reverbnation.com/coldconspiracy.